2013 U.S. Open: Tiger Woods admits having pain in left arm during first round

Tiger Woods met briefly with reporters after carding a 3-over 73 in the first round of the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club. Here's a transcript of his remarks:

On the way you reacted, what was the concern, what was the issue?

My left arm didn't feel very good on that shot. A few shots. But overall it was not too bad a round. I certainly had two 3 putts and I a boatload of putts and the round could have easily been under par. So that's good heading into this afternoon.

I know you never like to talk about injury, but what prompted that reaction? What did you feel?

Pain (laughter). But it is what it is and you move on and I got to get ready for this next round in a little bit.

What was the challenge in figuring out the speed and measure of these greens with the changing condition and changing days?

It's unbelievable how much faster they were this morning. That pin on 12 is a little quick from above and I barely hit mine and I ran it by about eight feet. And there are a couple pins like that. And it should slow up a little bit by this afternoon, but there's still quite a bit of moisture in them so I think that the uphill, into the grain putts are really slow and then obviously the downhill, down grain putts are really quick.

Other than how tough the course presents in a U.S. Open, what was tough about getting momentum going?

It's one of those golf courses where there's some easy holes and there's some hard holes that follow. And you got to take care of the easy holes and try and get through the hard ones. And for some reason I left myself quite a bit of, quite a few putts in there where they were easily makeable and I didn't make any.

It seemed like [on the] 17th [hole] break you got, on the chip you made there was a microcosm of your round. How would you describe that shot and what you saw?

Well the tee shot wasn't that bad, if it comes out in the bunker it's an easy bunker shot. And I hit a good pitch and the wind killed it. You could see it stall out. And it was just a few inches from getting all the way down to the hole.

What's the difference mentally in starting at 11 versus starting at 1 here in just a short while?

We're used to it. I played a couple practice rounds over there, so that's one of the reasons why I did it. And the thing is I'm going to get some food on board and get back out there.

Philly.com has complete coverage of the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club.